Tiny, 2,300-Year-Old Egyptian Mummy Believed to be a Hawk is Actually a Human Fetus

Friday, November 18, 2016 18:09

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In a surprising piece of archaeological news, researchers have discovered that a 2,300-year-old mummy that was once believed to the remains of a hawk is actually a human fetus. If their estimation of the age of the fetus is correct, than the Maidstone Museum holds the youngest mummified human remains found to date. The research team was also shocked to find that a mummy known as Ta-Kush, believed to be a 14-year-old girl when she died 2,700 years ago, was much older.

Kent Online says that the researchers used CT scanning to discover that a tiny sarcophagus which was thought to hold a hawk is really a miscarried 20-week-old fetus from the Egyptian Ptolemaic period (323 BC – 30BC). The researchers also used the same technology to discover that Ta-Kush was at least in her mid-20s when she died, not her early teens.

Without the CT scan results, it would have been impossible to discover this small sarcophagus holds a miscarried baby, not the hawk it was previously believed to contain. (Maidstone Museum)